


How to be Cooler than Cool (Shades'n'blades!AU's)

by Spacecarrots



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Biker, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate universe- Divorced, Fluff and Angst, Humanformers, M/M, One Shot, its complicated, past relationship, young mummy Blades
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 14:23:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3653667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecarrots/pseuds/Spacecarrots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blades and Slingshot alternate universes starting with the Broken!AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Slingshot left an exhausted Blades wit Baby Knives and upon returning for te war theyre trying to work a share custody kind of deal. (Also head over heals for Blades and Knives Slingshot is my guilty pleasure)

Awkward was an understatement to say the least in their current situation. And Blades fidgeted a little when Knives' teacher raised an eyebrow over a too small pair of wire glasses.

"It's complicated." Blades said defensively, he didn't much feel like relaying his life history to some snob judging him from under his glasses. Had enough of that years ago.

"Complicated is not good for a five year old Mr Bots" He drawled sceptically. "Neither are 24 hour shifts"

"Pots, the b is silent not the p." Blades added coldly "And you don't think I know that." He sat forward and thrust his hands toward himself to further the point. What did this academic nerd think he was stupid? Knives was a perfectly happy, perfectly healthy little five year old. Alright maybe her interests were concerning and maybe that was his fault but she was perfectly perfect!

"I think you know that it is a struggle being a single parent-" He sighed taking his glasses off and folding them into a box, neatly folding the cloth over them.

"I said I was single not a single parent." Blades scoffed sitting back and folding his arms. This couldn't be going any worse. The teacher gave him dull look before picking up a carefully positioned pen and began to write."What are you writing?"

"Notes; should Knives get into trouble again and should I need to involve child services." He said easily, without a care as if that hadn't destroyed Blades world.

"Ch-child services..." Blades blinked, he felt lightheaded, he felt sick and lightheaded and exhausted. He let his face fall into his hand briefly before the head teacher sighed.

"I'm not implying that you're a bad parent but..." He took a deep breath and passed a card over the desk leaning down to look at Blades "You are very young and perhaps we should be thinking about what is best for Knives and yourself."

Blades couldn't find it in him to soften the frown on his face as he glanced up at him and then down at the card. Written in neat black ink was a phone number.

"That is my work number. I'd like it if we kept in touch so that we can organise to improve Knives social skills." He stood and Blades did the same pocketing the small card unceremoniously, hoping that it was at least a little bit crumpled.

"Right...I'd say it's been a pleasure-" Blades began, but large man stepped out from behind the tiny desk and held out a big hand.

"Yes, well I to wished we'd met under better circumstances. Apart from her attitude Knives is a wonderful child." He shook his hand roughly. Before he let his hand go however, her teacher held his stare "You are very lucky to have her." he said heavily and let go of Blades hand.

They parted ways and the pleasantries, and Blades half ran to Knives' class room, furiously wiping at his face so Knives sharp eyes wouldn't see his worry.

He arrived outside the class just as parents began to crowd and tried to hold himself still, as the children flooded out loudly.

"Daddy!" Knives yelled happily pushing her way out of the class, dropping her lunch box and ran toward him, the balls of her hair bans, tangled in her auburn pigtails clacking a she jumped up into his arm. Blades grinned meakly and pulled her up into his arms releasing the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. "What you doing here?"

"Wanted to see you tiny." He laughed at her confused tone and tighted bis grip.

"But-"

"Blades?" Blades jumped at the familiar call of his name and whirrled toward the sound. Slingshot was starring at him and Knives, familure grumpy frown gently pressing on his brow. "Uh It's Friday, what-what're you doin' here?"

When Blades met his frown Slingshot faltered and frowned at his keys, then pintched his brow and glared at him. Stubborn as always.

"Dad!!" Knives squeaked excitedly.

"Hey princess." He smiled coming over and cautiously placing a kiss on her cheek before stepping back to keep his distance. "You could have called..." He grumbled glancing up at Blades.

Blades face was red, his blonde hair a mess like he'd been pulling at it, a thing he used to do when he was angry.

"Knives' coming home with me this week." Blades said harshly and picked up her forgotten lunch box.

"What? B-but it's my week-" Slingshot stuttered, and Blades cringed at the note of panic in his voice and exited the small school.

"Not now it's not." Blades held tight and made for the car park as quick as he could without scaring Knives.

After a moment of pure shock Slingshot ran after them and blocked Blades' keys from entering the car door.

"Hey! You can't just decide it's not my week-" Slingshot yelled sprawled against the side of his car.

"I can and I will! Move before I stab you with my house key." Knives' little grip tightened on the leather of his jacket and Blades relaxed his grip on the keys. He let out a heavy sigh. "Slingshot, please, would y'just move?"

Slingshot glanced at Knives who was fretfully clinging to Blades' jacket and knitting her little eyebrows together.

"Okay." He sighed, not moving his eyes from her face until she looked up hopefully.

Blades watched the gesture jealously and nodded. Slingshot moved to the driver side and let Blades open the back passenger door for Knives to get in. Once she was in and before he could close the door, Slingshot grabbed the frame and quickly got in, closing the door and locking it.

"Asshole!" Blades growled fruitlessly pulling on the handle to no eval. Slamming his head against the small cars red roof in frustration he gave in and got into the drivers side, slamming the door and revving the little engine in anger despite his surrender.

As they left the school lot Knives began to brighten again. This had been the first time they'd been in a car together in a long long time and she simply smiled up at her dad excitedly. She tugged on his shirt and he cupped his ear to her.

"Can we still do Mc FriD's?" She whispered glancing at Blades who beeped the horn with his fist.

"Sure thing, princess." He smiled ruffling her hair affectionately. Slingshot leaned forward and received an icy glance from Blades. "Me and Knives go to Mc Donald's on _my_  Friday's. If you're not too busy brakin' the speed limit, can we make a stop?" He made special care in emphasising the my just to piss him off that little extra.

It worked and Blades glared at the 30mph sign and brought his speed down from 40 with a very animalistic grunt.

"Is that a yes?" Slingshot asked irritably and Blades rolled his eyes.

"Yeah! Sure! Fine! Great, why don't we just have a family dinner and everything, while we're at it I'll call your brothers! Make it real interesting." Blades hissed sarcastically and making a sharp turn.

"Great but Mc D's first yeah?" Slingshot chuffed humourlessly, sitting back and looping his arms around Knives who was quickly glancing between him and Blades expectantly. "FriD's are a go." Slingshot grinned as Knives broke out into a toothy grin.

Partially toothy grin, one of her front teeth had fallen out Slingshot noticed. Taking the time to spot everything that had changed about her in the past week. Sometimes it felt like he was missing great craters of Knives' life, she'd come home one week liking one thing and then the next something completely different. Had been at it's worst lately, when they'd decided to measure each other and he'd noticed that she now came above his knee. It dawned on him quickly that no long ago this had been a very small auburn haired baby not all that long ago, that he could hold in one hand. Slingshot felt he'd missed a great deal of little things that he wished he hadn't but could only blame himself for. 

"You're hair looks cool dude." He smirked at the little yellow baubles in her hair.

"Thanks" She blushed touching a tiny pigtail bashfully. "Daddy did them..."

"They look rad." Slingshot nudged her playfully and she giggled. "You can do a double helicopter now."

Blades watched them laugh together in the back seat wishing to be part of the conversation and able to make Knives giggle like that. Trust Slingshot to be the funny parent he thought bitterly.

"Drive through or inside?" He grumbled and rolled his eyes as the two yelled "INSIDE!"

Once inside Blades tagged along like a moody teen as Slingshot and Knives ordered loudly and gleefully asking the boy behind the counter for "the finest chicken nuggers" and "pinkest of the strawberry milk" before taking a seat outside, where Knives took two chicken nuggets and disappeared into the climbing frame.

"We better set up camp" Slingshot chuckled once she reappeared at the very top.

"Yeah she is never coming back is she?" Blades smirked as she waved at them and began putting the food back in her happy meal box to keep it warm. Slingshot laughed at Blades and his lopsided smirk. Blades looked up perplexed. "What?"

"Nothin' just nice to see you in a good mood." He shrugged sipping at his drink as he glanced at him through tacky orange pilot shades.

"Gee thanks." Blades huffed, aggressively ramming his chips into the sauce.

"It was a compliment" Slingshot grumbled awkwardly.

"I don't want your stupid compliments. I just want to take Knives home." Blades sniffed eating his food in miserable silence the words Child Services reverberating through his skull.

"Yeah, what happened? How come you were tryin' to steal Nye?" Slingshot was frowning at him now. Blades was upset and when Blades was upset he put a little too much force between everyday tasks and his fists. Judging by the way jabbed his chip repeatedly into the tomato sauce Blades was really upset. "Did the school call again?"

"Yup, 'caught fist fighting in the boys bathroom over legos'" Blades sighed raking back his golden blond hair stressfully. "Her teacher picked the bones of my parenting and said that if it carried on he'd have to involve child services."

"What?!" Slingshot gasped and Blades nodded solubly. "But you're- and she's- what?!" He was outraged clearly and that brought a small, hidden smile to Blades lips. "We gotta go back! I wanna know everything that happened!"

"Calm down he's hasn't called anyone. He was just making a point." Blades sighed forgetting his chips and instead watching Knives nimbly swing on the monkey bars, grinning as she showed off.

"Calm-! calm down?" He hissed "Is this why you tried to take her?"

"No!...I mean maybe-Look I just want to take her home and forget any of this happened." Blades hissed back.

"Fine you can come back to mine-" Slingshot began a little to happily for his nerves.  

"You're such an asshole." Blades rubbed at his face aggressively and Slingshot bawked.

"No, you're being an asshole." He wanted to argue but Blades was past it and slamed his hands on the table.

"How am I an asshole? How come you always make me look like the bad guy?" He sighed and glanced over to the play groun. Knives was playing oblivious to the conversatio. "Last I checked you were the one that left us to go play dogfight. Not me. So you are the asshole."

"Yeah you keep reminding me, but you know what Rotors I know i'm an asshole, I know I shouldn't have done that to either of you but right now you're trying to stop me from spending time with _our_  daughter because you had a bad day. So me and Knives are taking the bikes and were going to Nosecones place for the weekend."

"You're taking her bike riding? After she got into a fight?" Blades growled.

"Yeah because those guys with the legos? I'm pretty sure they're the same guys that started the chalk board fight and if Knives got into a fight it's because they were being little dicks." Slingshot slurped angrily at his drink. Blades stared at him incredulously.

He had a point however, Knives had inherited their strong sense of right and wrong. She'd fight for hours is she believed in what she said. A trait, Slingshot noted she mostly shared with Blades.

Blades sourly turned back to his food, he was being an asshole and Slingshot of all people was telling him this? Slingshot watched from the top of his glasses as Blades' brow knit together and his green eyes swelled.

"Look I...Are you okay?...Blades?" Slingshot asked after he'd calmed, holding his drink so to keep his distance. Blades looked at questioningly as if to say 'do I look okay?' but Slingshot held his smile. "You...know you're a good parent...right?"

"Psh maybe not as good as I thought..." Blades said quietly resting his chin on his folded arms. What was worse, not only the fact that Slingshot was being so nice about this, but that Blades was wondering if maybe it would be a good idea to find Knives a better home, one that wasn't broken, or too young, or encouraging her to get into fights.

"That's horse shit." Maybe a family that didn't swear so much. Blades glanced up at Slingshot who stared at him in disgust. "You're a great parent and you know it."

"I'm not that great...you're better." Slingshot snorted and Blades smiled "It's true I've seen how close you two are, you always cheer her up, you're her best friend, you're the fun dad and I'm...just dad."

"What's wrong with being 'just dad'?" Slingshot scoffed but Blades just watched him quietly from his side of the bench. "Blades I'd kill to be the 'just dad', because  you're the one she comes to when things get rough, you're the one she's going to want with her when she's getting married or having kids. Blades jesus, Yeah I'm her friend! but i'm her friend not her dad, you're her dad and you always will be."

A touch of sadness flitted across Slingshot's lips and Blades considered what he'd said. Yes he was the parent in charge, as most called it, but he still yearned to be able to have such easy conversations with her as Slingshot did. But the difference between them was vastly different now and Slingshot's role was his own fault and he hated himself for being there.

"...and I'm saying this as a compliment, I'm not trying to shoot you while you're down...." Slingshot muttered unable to look Blades in the eye, so instead stared at his drink. "...I could never have done what you did for her...I was already scared when it was both of us but to say fuck you I'm going at it alone...as much as I hate your guts for it sometimes...that was really brave..."

Blades starred dumbly at him for a long long minutes watching as Slingshot's ears slowly went pink under his gaze.

 

"Only sometime?" Blades grinned.

"Yeah only when Kill Bill comes on" Slingshot said sheepishly. "...if you wanna up your dad points you could always come with us..."He grumbled offering Blades his chips. "...I mean like 'cause Knives would love it if you came and...I think It'd be fun- you know for Knives..."

"Really?" Blades smiled, sharing the offered chips.

"Sure!" Slingshot chirped enthusiastically then cleared his throat "...I mean, you know, no big deal..." Blades smirked at his sudden nonchalantness.

"Yeah okay." he muttered bashfully.

"Awesom I can'-can't wait to tell Knives..." Slingshot beamed waving her over. Once Knives returned panting and smiling from ear to ear they told her and her face lit up in a burst of happiness and excitment. It didn't take long for her to finish her meal so once they were done, still full of pure  delight Knives sprinted back to car, jumping up and down with joy while she waited for her parents to catch up.

Slingshot and Blades watched he wiz around like a fire cracker and slowly and quietly made their way behind her. It was Blades who broke their content quiet and in future possibly the icy wall that had developed between them. 

"I missed you." He said softly. It wasn't a plea, or a great declaration of love but it was enough to warm Slingshot's heart and keep a smile on his face for the rest of the day.

"I missed you."


	2. Biker!AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slingshot takes a ride with this good looking bad boy that keeps showing up at his work place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so cheese it is wat it is it's literally lana del rey's music video for ride except more bike and Slingshot doesn't hold dance wit a US flag bc idk if that would b hilarious or sexy. Feel free to listen to that as soundtrack lmao Mite add more wit them being druck horney assholes but hey we'll c

Slingshot wasn't familiar with the noise he'd made when Blades stood from his table, one hand waiting for his, the other leaning him across the dinner table so those green eyes could look down into his. He raised a golden eye brow as Slingshot floundered in the small  oceans his eyes bore and hastily rubbed his hand on his apron before taking Blades'. Not even thinking about why he'd picked him and not sleek black bangs Ravage. Like a silent, sealing of a deal, he was yanked out of the gaudy white booth, and their curdled cream colour. Blond and tight leather trousers dragged him outside into the afternoon air of pin needles and fresh water. He pulled him from the trashy dinner, to where all their bikes were parked in a semi cycle. Slingshot only knew Streetwise, who stood close by his gleaming Kawasaki, and Groove leaning on the swept back handle bars of his Harley, watching the world go by. Streetwise rolled his eyes when Blades took a helmet off the back of a skinny little red, black Suzuki off-roader, and offered it to him. Slingshot ignored the others but didn't take the helmet. Blades, with all his leather tassels and sharp, gelled, blond hair, seemed prepared for this what with the extra helmets and the oh so convenient timing of his shift. But then blondy took the open face helmet and gentle put it on his head, with a satisfied smirk.

"You look cool, shades." Blades complimented, straightening the orange pilot sunglasses upon Slingshot's face he referred to. "Cool enough for out date." He grinned, and Slingshot felt his cheeks heat.

"Date?" He asked through a dry throat and thanked all rock opera legends that his brothers weren't here to see him this speechless.

"Well yeah, I know this awesome place where we can get burgers, you know, if you still want that ride?" The smirk revealed a glint of pearly teeth amongst his suddenly soft tone. Slingshot's mind, used to talking on a regular basis, blank and unable to filter his already awkward social skills.

"On that?" He blurted out. For a single beat of silence, his heart felt like it was punching him from within his chest at such a sucky thing to say. But Blades just laughed, like a hyena, turning and picking up his own helmet, adorned with a helicopter raging through bright orange flame.

"Yes, asshole." He grinned, faceting the tacky motor cross helmet to his head while he straddled the worn black leather of the seat like a horse. Slingshot replayed the swift motion in his head until Blades patted a gloved hand on the spot behind him. He did as instructed and did as Blades had, except with a little less grace and more don't be awkward and touch him. That awkwardness was quickly decimated by Blades taking hold of his legs, behind the knees and yanking him forward so that they were flush against one another. He then snakes a hand down and guided Slingshot converse to the foot rests, instructing his to hold on tight. With a turn of the wrist the bike flared to life with a raw. Slingshot took that moment to wrap his arms around Blades waist. Through Blades' thin white t-shirt he felt soft fat and hard muscle, that had Slingshot keeping his hot checks hidden behind Blades back, ad out of the bikes little round mirrors. "Ready?" He called over the growling engines and Slingshot gave a small nod. No sooner than had he nodded, did Blades let go of the clutch and they were ripped forward.

For the first few minutes, Slingshot held his eyes shut tight, his helmet buried in the leather tassels an biker patch of Blades back and let the muffled whine of the bike drown out his hearing. Blades must have been talking to him, because it hadn't worked, Slingshot was a little too shocked to register human speech, whether that person was yelling or not. He felt a hand touch his own. Slingshot opened his eyes before the hand returned to the handle of the bike. He gave a stiff nod when Blades checked on him, lifting his head a little to look around. The world sped past in long blur of greens on trees, and grey of tarmac. The world was cold and fast here, but as his confidence returned and he held tighter to Blades, the trees were soon miles of forest, the tarmac a stream cutting a path for them, the cold, voted bearable against the warmth and gentle flex of Blades' back muscles. You could taste the biting wind in his mouth and feel the rush of it fuel his adrenaline. When they finally broke from the trees, they were met with the site of a great lake, so still in the afternoon that like a mirror it reflected the trees around it perfectly. That light upon it shone of the edges of clouds, painting them in a pallet of shadows. Slingshot slacken his grip a little to look at it all move together as they rode around it. So mesmerised was he that he didn't notice the quick glances Blades shot at his mirror, at the road and at Slingshot breathing in the last of the light with a lob sided smile that pulled at the corners of Blades' mouth and at the back of his heart. They continued along the lake until the sun dissolved and Slingshot was happily pressing his face into Blades' back, until they pulled up at a small, but brightly lit burger van, even then Slingshot still lingered until the bike had completely shut off.

**Author's Note:**

> lot of Slings being the voice of reason here but yah kno maybe hes matured a lot and thought about his life choices and maybe hes a better person simple for knowing Blades and Knives so yeah


End file.
